Monday, July 30, 2012

Surrounded by crap....

Look, Secret is showing you that the piles of crap are taller than her now!

Sigh. I really need to figure out what to do with all this junk. I've started to bring everything home from the office and wow.... You accumulate a lot of stuff over a span of fourteen years in one office! Today I fought through the dust bunnies and found a pile of stuff that hasn't been touched for EIGHT YEARS. That would be my assumption considering I found Norman's journal. For those who don't know, Norman was one of my horses -- what I did before I started on this crazy dog journey.

I had completely forgotten that I'd even kept that journal! Much like Secret's blog here, I started Norman's journal the day I brought him home from Panache Acres in Janesville -- back in 2001! It catalogs his training and growth through pictures and journal entries up through when I broke my arm in 2004. It took me totally by surprise when I stumbled upon that treasure, so I guess closing up the office is at least offering a few fun unexpected finds.

I actually opted to leave the dogs home today. It's one of the rare occasions where I've gone to the office without them, but I think this week is just going to be too stressful for them -- Well, for Secret in particular. It was nice to be able to move stuff around and box things up without worrying about them, so I think I'll likely continue to leave them home this week. I kept an eye on them via the web cam all day today. I wish there was a way to yell at them when they bark.... They were a quiet bunch all afternoon, but man oh man were they naughty in the morning.

Today is yet another day in the 90's, but I'm home for the evening and figured now was as good a time as any to do a bit of brush up on the equipment we don't see at NADAC trials. I set up a flowing little ditty using a chute, several jumps, the teeter, a tunnel, the broad jump and a table. Everyone did awesome, although I didn't ask for much in the heat. The only real "handling challenge" was picking which side of the C-shape tunnel to send to after the teeter and then, depending on which end was the exit, picking up the line to the broad jump. I made sure that the lead-in to the table was good and speedy. Secret skidded right off the side the first time but collected nicely after that. The little man stuck his table each time, so yay for Kaiser! Everyone handled the increase in height fine as well tonight, so fingers crossed that Kaiser stays happy this weekend down in Chicago.

The run order hasn't been posted yet for the Regional. I'm curious to see how many dogs we'll see in the PSJ class, as I keep hearing how large the Performance classes are in other areas (vs. the rather sparse group at the trials we've attended). I'm also wondering how many people actually enter the Starters and Advanced classes at a Regional event. It will be nice to not have to worry about running Secret and Kaiser back to back -- at least until Kaiser finishes out his P1 titles. :o)

Secret still isn't sleeping in bed with us at night. Last night I did switch her into her Back on Track coat instead of the Thundershirt and I'll be leaving that on her the rest of the week. I'm very curious to see what she does in the hotel room Saturday night, assuming she's still not staying in bed here at home come that time. We have a chiropractic appointment on Thursday -- with as oddly as she's been behaving lately, I figure I wasn't going to leave anything to chance and want her feeling her best this weekend.

The regional should be a lot of fun - many top handlers attend the regionals, and there should be a lot of competitors in the performance group, though they most likely will be in the P3 level. Here, Skye competes in 22" P3, and we sometimes have 10 dogs in our class, though more typically it's 5 or 6.

For sure! The main reason I decided to enter the Regional was simply so I could go watch some really amazing agility. :o) I'm looking forward to seeing a few "big names" that I've been watching on YouTube for years. I wish I could have swung all three days and running Team, but we'll settle for PSJ and the baby dog classes. I can't wait!

About Me

I have five dogs whom all play along in this sport with me. Luke (Lab/Shepherd) was adopted from my local Humane Society in March of 2004 as a puppy and was my first agility dog (started in 2007). Kaiser (Alaskan Klee Kai) came along in April of 2008 -- he was acquired from a breeder in the great state of Colorado! Secret joined us in December of 2009 from the Border Collie Rescue of MN. Kizzy has quite the background story that can all be read on this blog, but she arrived in July of 2013. Jedi joined the family in April of 2016.